#24: White Dog Fell From The Sky by Eleanor Morse

An African man makes a harrowing escape from Apartheid South Africa in a hearse; as he tries to reassemble his life in Botswana, he meets an American woman whose marriage is slowly crumbling.  How their lives continue to intersect and impact each other is at the center of Eleanor Morse's White Dog Fell From The Sky.

I picked up this novel because my wife had to read it for an MFA class, and I wanted to read along.  I also support any book with a white dog in it, as I love my Westie.  This dog, however, is a somewhat mystical animal that appears at critical junctures and helps the dual protagonists in various ways.

Going into this with no preconceived notions, I ended up enjoying the novel for the most part.  I felt stronger about the high-stakes plight of the African man (who falls in with revolutionaries) than the American woman and her relationship entanglements (which soon include a rugged outdoorsman-type as a counterpoint to her husband).

A solid read about a sad, specific time in world history.  Worthwhile for general readers.

#23: Welcome to the Octagon by Jack Tunney and Gerard Brennan

An MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter in Belfast, raising a kid on his own, gets into underground fighting with the expected results in Welcome to the Octagon, the first entry in the new Fight Card MMA ebook series.

I picked this up for my beloved Kindle because of my interest in Irish author Gerard Brennan, as well as a general enjoyment of the earlier Fight Card books, a period series that harkens back to pulp stories of old.

Even with the MMA trappings, it's still an old-school story of a palooka who makes a wrong turn, and those who like this type of stories will enjoy it fine.

Although the Fight Card novels are always short, Welcome to the Octagon seemed not only short but rather abrupt; I would have liked it to be fleshed out quite a bit more, especially in the third act.

That being said, I am sure I will continue to read the Fight Card series.

#22: Build A Box For Wildcat by Jeff Clinton

Wildcat O'Shea is a cowboy with a penchant for dynamite and loud clothes, but has to rethink his lifestyle when saddled with a couple of ornery kids in Build a Box for Wildcat.

Despite the serious title, and a sober picture on the cover, Build a Box for Wildcat is generally a comedic western, spiked with generous fistfights and shoot-outs. 

Jeff Clinton is the pseudonym of Jack Bickham, who wrote a number of Wildcat O'Shea books as well as other westerns (such as The Apple Dumpling Gang) and in other genres.  If the film version of The Apple Dumpling Gang sticks in your childhood memory as it does mine, you can sort of gauge what kind of novel this is.

I picked this up sight unseen at a flea market with a stack of other paperbacks and found it an interesting departure.

#21: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Two teens, both named Will Grayson and both adrift in the Chicago suburbs, lead parallel lives until a big-boned, openly gay friend named Tiny brings them together in Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

I was interested in dipping into some John Green when I found this on the audiobook rack at the Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana and decided to give it a try.

It is a funny, coming-of-age young adult story (written in alternating chapters by the two authors) which hasn't fallen far from the John Hughes tree.  The novel's frank talk about sexuality and sexual relationships (the two eventually meet in an adult bookstore) would probably make it more suitable for older teens, but its message of general acceptance of other lifestyles is good for all.  It finishes with a highly unbelievable chain of events surrounding an elaborate school play about Tiny's life, but in general can be forgiven for a false cinematic ending.

I enjoyed listening to this novel and found it enhanced considerably by good narration.

#20: Sin In Their Blood by Ed Lacy

A Korean War vet with both physical and emotional trauma comes home and wants to live a quiet life; but a suicide that actually is a murder gets him back in the game in Ed Lacy's Sin In Their Blood.

I don't ever see Lacy mentioned with other noir masters, but his books are highly enjoyable, full of action and a bristly humor.  Somehow I have read a fair amount of his books and keep looking for more.

This one has blackmail, beat-downs, and beautiful dames, but the offbeat characterization of the protagonist lifts the story above its 50s private-eye roots.  Lacy's books are definitely not politically correct, but can be enjoyed as a product of their time.

I got this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.

#19: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

A Tokyo pickpocket gets involved in a gang of thieves to help an old friend and mentor, not realizing the life-and-death stakes at hand, in Fuminori Nakamura's creepy noir The Thief.  Along the way he ends up befriending a child pickpocket and tries to keep him off the same path.

Although on the surface The Thief is a pretty straightforward crime novel, there is an unsettling air about the proceedings, everything clammy and slick with sweat, dark and rainy and cold.  With its constant grinding on of the machine of Fate, the novel actually reads like something between Richard Stark and Albert Camus.

I picked this up without knowing anything about it at the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.  I have already recommended it to a few others but would say it is for anyone who likes a more offbeat crime story.

#18: Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

A young woman in 1970s London has a fling with an older man and gradually drifts into the spy world (during a gradually cooling Cold War) in Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth.

McEwan's writing is generally considered literary fiction, but somewhere along the line he had to have read some classic John LeCarre as this novel seems to be a direct homage not only to that time and place but to LeCarre's works.

But there is also a literary element as McEwan explores how this young woman is used by men--her older lover, her first lover, her bosses and coworkers--as a pawn in what turns out to be a pretty low-stakes game.

I have read McEwan from time to time but was especially attracted to this novel because of the spy setting and time period.  My wife is a big McEwan fan and I bought it for her with the sly intention of reading it next (and did so).

Recommended on various levels, for serious readers and classic spy novel fans.

#17: A Bullet for Cinderella by John D. MacDonald

A vet just home from a North Korean prison camp goes looking for a stash of money buried by a deceased fellow prisoner, falling in with a good girl and a bad girl while all the while being dogged by a psychopath in John D. MacDonald's bracing noir A Bullet for Cinderella.

MacDonald is probably best known for his Travis McGee series about a Florida P.I., but I like his non-series work even better.  This was a very tough story and an old-fashioned page-turner (although those who have read the later Cape Fear might speculate if MacDonald rehashed some ideas).

This was recommended to me for my beloved Kindle and I downloaded and read it quickly.  Great for MacDonald fans and good for anyone else who enjoys hardboiled stories.

#16: The Chill by Ross Macdonald

Private eye Lew Archer goes looking for a runaway bride and stumbles across a series of murders that stretch back decades in Ross Macdonald's The Chill.

As a teenager and young adult I was a great devotee of Macdonald's Archer series and thought I had pretty much read them all until I stumbled across this paperback at a used book sale at the university where I work.  I'm glad,  as I think I appreciate Macdonald's writing even greater with more adult eyes.

Macdonald writes a great hardboiled story but includes a lot of psychological elements that makes the storytelling even more sophisticated.  If you have somehow passed by Macdonald's work it's never too late to jump in (and there have been several good movie versions as well).  Recommended for fans.

#15: Midnight Special by Phoef Sutton

Matt Cahill is cursed/blessed with being able to see evil, and in this installment of the Dead Man series, he gets curious about a supposedly cursed 70s grindhouse movie and heads to L.A. in Midnight Special.

This speedy series of horror novels for the Kindle, written by various authors, have varied in quality but I think this is my favorite thus far.  Phoef Sutton writes in a darkly humorous vein and name-checks a lot of exploitation flicks, which is right up my alley.

Like the last installment I read, Cold As Hell by Anthony Neil Smith,  this one read a bit like a storyline conceived for something else with Matt Cahill and his antagonist, Mr. Dark, bolted onto the action.  But I liked the concept for it well enough that this didn't bother me.

This was sent to me by series creator Lee Goldberg for my beloved Kindle and I consumed it quickly.  Recommended for fans of the series.

#14: Three Rode Together by Ben Bridges and Steve Hayes

A cowboy under special orders from the president, a freed African slave who can speak to horses, and Native American legend Geronimo become an unlikely trio who stand against a crooked Indian agent, a racist army officer, and a handful of murderous miners in Three Rode Together.

Despite being compelled by the rather offbeat plot, I actually picked this up for my beloved Kindle solely based on the cover, which clearly featured an homage to Italian spaghetti western star Terence Hill.

I also have previously enjoyed the work of western writer Ben Bridges, one of the "Piccadilly Cowboys," British writers who for whatever reason love the American West.

As one might suspect, this was a fun but undemanding western saga that I read quickly.  Recommended for western readers looking for something a bit different.

#13: Bluff City Brawler by Heath Lowrance and Jack Tunney

A palooka accidentally kills a mobster in a bar fight, and goes on the run; naturally, he doesn't run quite far enough in Bluff City Brawler, a brawny entry in the Fight Card ebook series.

I have, by and large, enjoyed this compact, unassuming series of books harking back to the dime novels of old.  I selected this one because of interest in the author and found that it hit all the right beats (so to speak) as our protagonist brushes up against cold-blooded henchmen, gold-hearted women, craggy-faced managers, and straight-arrow cops (among other archetypes).

Enjoyable for fans of old-fashioned adventure and crime stories.  I bought this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.

#12: The Black Box by Michael Connelly

Cold case detective Harry Bosch goes back, on the anniversary of the L.A. riots, to a murder from that time period that has always plagued his conscience; soon he is right back in a case that stretches from the California 'burbs to the first Desert Storm in Michael Connelly's The Black Box.

Connelly's Harry Bosch novels are, I believe, one of the great contemporary crime series and one whose latest additions I am always quick to pick up and read (This one I nabbed from the Farmland Public Library).

The last few novels have especially built a head of steam, seemingly heading towards Bosch's retirement (if he doesn't go out with a bang in some way).  A bit hard to pick up and fully appreciate without having read Connelly before, but recommended for fans.

#11: Cold As Hell by Anthony Neil Smith

A virus gets loose in a snowstorm, pitting our protagonist (who is blessed/cursed with being able to see evil in others) with his grandpa's trusty axe against a legion of foes in Anthony Neil Smith's Cold As Hell.

This horror/thriller is the latest in the Dead Man series, an easily-digestible ebook collection--by various authors--centered on the premise of a drifter rooting out evil as he wanders the countryside.  This entry read much less like a Dead Man book (which often center around a fiendish antagonist called Mr. Dark) and more like a standalone thriller with some of the series parameters bolted on.

But it is still a fun read, as our hero--stranded with other drivers and various characters along a desolate stretch of interstate--contend with containment of the virus as well as its impact on the victims.

I selected this one, like the previous one I read by Christa Faust, because of interest in the author, and found his writing enjoyable.

I have liked this series for the most part and borrowed this one for my beloved Kindle, reading it quickly.

#10: Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Serial killer Dexter Morgan, who tries to prey only on Miami's criminal element, is caught in the act of dispatching a child murderer; soon he has to contend with the rather curious motives of an onlooker as well as a vicious cop killer in Double Dexter.

This long-standing series of novels has been running concurrently with a Showtime television series, but the two have followed very divergent paths at this point with people alive in the books and dead in the series (and vice versa) as well as other notable differences.

I think in general those who enjoy the series will enjoy the novels, although the novels have been wildly uneven (with at least one genuine dud and one or two very strong entries).

I listened to this one on audiobook from Morrisson-Reeves Public Library, read rather credibly by the author himself.

This one was a fairly good thriller, despite the fact that the murderous mastermind Dexter seems a step or two behind the reader through the whole story.  It had the right blend of cold-blooded homicide and Dexter's coldly humorous commentaries and is recommended for fans of either the books or the TV series.

#9: The Freeloaders by Ed Lacy

A struggling scriptwriter in Nice, France, finds his TV project going bust and is suddenly at loose ends; slowly, and then quickly, he falls in with a shady group of characters in Ed Lacy's The Freeloaders.

Ed Lacy was a prolific pulp fiction writers whose output I have always found interesting when I come across it.  This one I found for my beloved Kindle from Prologue Books.

This is a rollicking first-person story from the early 60s written in a rat-a-tat style that I found enjoyable. The narrator has a lot of sardonic observations about the time and place and there are some interesting crime threads running throughout, up to a rather chilling conclusion.

Recommended for pulp fiction fans.

#8: I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti

A child living in a remote Italian village during a long, hot summer finds another child trapped in a hole; what is gradually revealed about the two boys and their relationships is at the heart of Niccolo Ammaniti's I'm Not Scared.

I saw the film version of this novel some years ago and recommend it to anyone as a very solid, suspenseful thriller.  If I had not already known the story from the film I would have thought this book, at the outset, was more of a chiller along the lines of Thomas Tryon's The Other.  The novel has an eerie, unsettling feeling and almost dreamlike qualities at times.

But there is a practical side to the story as you learn more about Italian politics and lifestyles, and the narrator has an interesting, reflective role looking back from adulthood.  The sketch of family life in this time and place seems authentic.

I thoroughly enjoyed this change-of-pace thriller after being surprised with it on the shelf of a used bookstore in Palatine, Illinois.

#7: Kill Clock by Allan Guthrie

A Scottish tough is trying to stay on the straight and narrow, but when they mess with his three-legged dog he is pushed too far in Allan Guthrie's Kill Clock.

I am a devout reader of Guthrie's thrillers, and this one I would recommend to fans as it features characters and situations that have populated his other writing (without there being a barrier for new readers).  In addition there are a couple of ex girlfriends, some smart-mouthed kids, some fringe personalities with murky intentions, and the aforementioned dog.

Despite a pretty tough-minded finale, this one surprises with a bit more levity than some of his other novels. Kill Clock is lighter and in some ways a bit slighter, but is a quick and enjoyable read.

I received this for my beloved Kindle and consumed it quickly.

#6: The Storm Without by Tony Black

A Belfast cop drummed out under mysterious circumstances returns to his hometown of Ayr; and  before he hits the city limits he is involved in solving a young woman's murder (and a young man's framing for it) in Tony Black's The Storm Without.

Hard-boiled detective novel with increased interest provided by the setting, so fully realized as to be a character on its own.  Curiously, this was originally serialized in a local newspaper, which I found surprising; Black's description of poor weather, a poorer economy, vigilante cops, and crooked politicians would seem to discourage local tourism.

This was the first featuring this character, and I would be interested to see what happens to him next.

I received this from Blasted Heath for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.

#5: Boston Avenger by Mike Barry

Burt Wolff is a VietNam vet and narco cop whose girlfriend is purposefully overdosed as a warning to him; he snaps and goes on a one-man war against the drug trade in Mike Barry's Boston Avenger.

This is the third novel featuring the Lone Wolf, a hardboiled Men's Adventure-style series from the 1970s that was apparently written by Barry Malzberg at a prodigious clip.  They are about as quick to read as they probably were to write, full of a strange intensity.

I thought this volume improved on the last, which had Wolff blowing up various things on the west coast, whose geography seemed ill-fitted to his persona; now we find Wolff back on the grimy east coast, a surer footing for Malzberg, as Wolff chases a seemingly cursed suitcase full of drugs around New England. 

This edition also digs a little deeper into Wolff's fractured psyche and shows that he really isn't someone to cheer for, despite his efforts to clean up the streets.

I have enjoyed these via Prologue Books for my beloved Kindle and am sure to pick up the next one.

#4: The Tall Dolores by Michael Avallone

Swingin' PI Ed Noon takes on the case of a wayward husband being sought by his giantess wife (which turns out not to be as straightforward as it seems) in Michael Avallone's first detective novel, The Tall Dolores.

Avallone was a very prolific pulp fiction writer whose prose is not so much loopy as full of curlicues.  To say that he writes in an oddball style is somewhat of an understatement, and the internet yields up that people either love him or hate him. 

I actually enjoyed this funny, action-packed mystery, the first in a lengthy series featuring Noon, a typically wise-cracking private eye whose office is called "the mouse auditorium."  As this is my first novel by Avallone I don't have a feel for whether this is a typical or atypical outing.  But there is plenty of solid action, and a surprisingly downbeat finale, all of which was satisfying enough for me to seek out another Ed Noon story.

I bought this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly.

#3: The Name's Buchanan by Jonas Ward

Buchanan is a hired gun with his own sense of honor, roaming the Old West; when he rescues a Mexican girl, and then her hotheaded brother, his code almost gets him killed in Jonas Ward's The Name's Buchanan.

This is the first of a long series of Westerns starring the stalwart Buchanan, who almost takes a backseat at times in this story as the tensions play out between a noble Mexican family and a murderous clan north of the border who hold sway over a corrupt town.

Buchanan was created by pulp writer William Ard, who writes in a hardboiled style that compliments the brawny cowboy overtones.  After he died, the series was written by others, and the other one I posted about on this blog was by a different author (and with a noticeable dropoff in quality).  Fortunately I came across a few more from Ard's tenure, and I am eager to check them out.

I was sent this for my beloved Kindle by my new pals at Prologue Books and read it quickly.

#2: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

In the far-flung future, a dashing thief is sprung from an inescapable prison in order to complete a mysterious mission in Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief.

Our tarnished protagonist takes off in a sentient spaceship to the great walking city of Mars, where he is pursued by a dogged local detective (who himself is aided by a post-human girlfriend and a gaggle of masked superhero-like vigilantes). 

As you might suspect this is quite a genre-bender, mixing Alexander Dumas with Neal Stephenson and Donald Westlake with Philip K. Dick.

I bought this on a whim at a goodbye price for my beloved Kindle and found it dense and rewarding and one of my favorite reads of recent memory.  Recommended for fans of cerebral sci-fi. 

#1: The Red Hills by James W. Marvin

The antihero called Crow joins the U.S. Calvary, just ahead of a modest skirmish called Little Big Horn, in The Red Hills, James W. Marvin's first Western featuring his cold-blooded protagonist.

This novel comes from the so-called Piccadilly Cowboys, (follow this part closely) British writers who wrote Italian-flavored American Westerns in their heyday from the 60s forward.  Marvin obviously read George Gilman's Edge rather closely (and I think even obliquely references the character), probably the grandaddy of all the tarnished heroes of this genre.

But Crow tries to outdo Edge, as the novel opens with the senseless killing of a child's dog, which sets the stage for further unpleasantness involving casual murder and generally repugnant behavior.  In The Caine Mutiny style, a commanding officer is introduced who is even more repellent, and soon Crow sets his sights on revenge.

Interesting, but generally unpleasant, Western for those who like a more tough-minded oater.  I bought this for my beloved Kindle and read it quickly for my first novel of 2013.

Favorite Reads of 2012

I narrowly skated into keeping my promise of reading 50 books in 2012, but made it at the end thanks to a couple of snowbound days right after Christmas.  I had vowed to try to read a little smarter, and thus maybe a little slower, but I think I have a good top ten list favorite reads to show for it.  And here they are:

Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

He Died With His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

Easy Money by Jens Lapidus

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jessi Adler-Olsen

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Happy Reading and I am off to 2013 and hopefully 50 more.